Out west

We head out west where the roads are small and everything takes time. We arrive in the rain of course and the van winds across the mountains of Connemara as we aim for Killary Harbour. The family are gathering with a small Swedish Grandnephew as the centre of it all. He is a smiling bundle of energy with a thing for household and domestic implements: saucepans, sweeping brushes and spoons.

The dark skies change by the minute. There is rain, there will be rain, there has been rain; outbreaks, showers, drizzle and driving varieties. Killary is a fjord separating two counties with a sliver of deep Atlantic. We stop at the meeting point in Leenane where they made the film of The Field. You can see here can’t you, that I’m on the Galway side and Himself is in Mayo.

In the waterside house my sister has taken for a couple of weeks the cousins are avoiding midges and planning fishing trips. When the light turns to summer, the huge sky opens up to the west, next stop Boston as they say. And although there will be crab sandwiches and glasses of Guinness the big draw here, is the landscape.

“Well, I think it makes a huge difference when you wake in the morning and come out of your house. Whether you believe you are walking into dead geographical location, which is used to get to a destination, or whether you are emerging out into a landscape that is just as much, if not more, alive as you but in a totally different form. And if you go towards it with an open heart and a real watchful reverence, that you will be absolutely amazed at what it will reveal to you. And I think that that was one of the recognitions of the Celtic imagination: that landscape wasn’t just matter, but that it was actually alive. What amazes me about landscape, landscape recalls you into a mindful mode of stillness, solitude, and silence where you can truly receive time.”

Comments

I am so in love with this place where the roads are small and everything takes time and your images are just awe inspiring. Also happy about those words from John O Donohue, where you can truly receive time … so perfect for your post.

I think it is because time gets absorbed in small moments and there is nothing to gauge the day by, except maybe the light. O and of course the sheep coming up and down the hill in the morning and the evening!!!!

I visited Killary Harbor once a few years ago and took a boat ride around the fjord. I had no idea that The Field had been filmed in that general area. I met J.B. Keane once when I was a child, at his pub in Listowel. I knew I was meeting a famous Kerry writer but the true significance of the meeting was lost on me then. Years later, my favorite Keane play is The Love Hungry Farmer, which I saw here in NYC several years ago; it was a one man show with Des Keogh. Your photos are absolutely stunning! Thanks for sharing them here and on Facebook.

Truly beautiful thank you for taking us along once again. The last sentence resonates so much about the Celtic imagination, I think this runs in my blood too “seeing the landscape not just as matter” but “alive” for me a calling into an intimate relationship with the landscape as being part of the whole! As was the case in my recent trip to Norway. x

Absolutely stunning Catherine! Of all the countries that I’ve traveled so far…the ones that come closest to what you describe are Peru and New Zealand. Both gave me that same feeling you so beautifully describe… Enjoy each and every minute! Thanks for sharing that awe inspiring country of yours!

Thank you Catherine – what a lovely way to begin the day! One of my favorite John O’Donohue poems is Beannact! There certainly are some landscapes which call to me more than others and in turn I feel a deeper connection to nature. You certainly capture those feelings for me in your photos!

Thank you Paula so much! Yes there is definitely a bond between humans and the land. Ironically the movie they made there, the Field tells a darker tale about when land symbolises oppression and greed. Ireland really has a layered and complex relationship with landscape and I think John always captures that…..